War of Streets and Houses

2015 Doug Wright Spotlight Award Nomination Ignatz award Nomination for Outstanding Graphic Novel "With deft sketches and minimal text, she shows how the streets of a city can simultaneously foster and crush social change, and how urban humans cling to personal freedom in an increasingly monitored world."--Sarah Goodyear, The Atlantic Cities "Engaging and informative, the book covers a surprisingly broad range of subjects given its brevity. The black-and-white artwork may appear simple but each illustration conveys a wealth of emotional detail, from demonstrations to Yanow's stripped-down view of herself. The book's quiet deliberation becomes more impressive with each read; Yanow is an author/illustrator to watch."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "A fascinating meeting of urban design, activism and theory of the control of the masses."--Julien Morissette, Radio-Canada/CBC "Sophie Yanow's War of Streets and Houses pushes the boundaries of what a graphic novel can be by using comics to create an academic treatise. [...] Yanow's work follows in the footsteps of Situationists who explored how the politics of the layout of cities affect the people who live there."--Lambda Literary "Her rendering choices are a big key as to why the comic succeeds. She has the ability to flip from near-abstraction to a more naturalistic style, depending on the setting. [...] despite the sketchiness of her line, one never feels cheated in terms of visual impact. Indeed, the abstractness of her line combined with the artificial solidity of the zip-a-tone gives the protest scenes a strange quality that would be difficult to capture in a more naturalistic style."--Rob Clough, The Comics Journal Praise for In Situ: "Short little bursts of focused energy. Great stuff."--Frank Santoro, Pompeii "This is a beautiful first major work by an artist who is quite clearly concerned about how she affects the world, in terms of both art and politics."--Rob Clough, High-Low Comics